Los Alamos National Laboratory

The theme for the community water events planned by the Communities for Clean Water is “Weaving Our Río Grande Communities Together.”
Three public education programs will be in Santa Fe and Española on Thursday and in Española on Friday. The programs are free and open to the public.
On Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., a Community Water Forum will be conducted at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, located at 201 Marcy Street. Its main topic will be the Buckman Projects and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

A young Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, Amy J. Clarke, is among the honorees that President Obama named as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

“Discoveries in science and technology not only strengthen our economy, they inspire us as a people,” Obama said. “The impressive accomplishments of today’s awardees so early in their careers promise even greater advances in the years ahead.”

Artist and peace activist Shannyn Sollitt doesn’t just want you to see her artwork, she wants you to feel it.
Currently hanging in the Bradbury Science Museum’s public forum space is a symbol Sollitt created incorporating cultural and religious icons from around the world.

“I hope that people standing in front of the icon will get peace from looking at it; will receive the positive energy that went into it and the energy from the various spiritual paths represented in it,” said Sollitt, a resident of Santa Fe. “I hope they walk out of the Bradbury Science Museum with a new sense of inspiration and hope.”

The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations had scheduled a hearing for Friday in Washington. The title of the hearing is “DOE’s Nuclear Weapons Complex: Challenges to Safety, Security, and Taxpayer Stewardship.”

But according to a Thursday afternoon posting of the Energy and Commerce Committee website, the hearing has been postponed indefinitely.

Among those expected to testify are NNSA administrator Thom D’Agostino and Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman. Others expected to testify include Glenn Podonsky, DOE’s Chief Health, Safety and Security Officer, Gregory Friedman, DOE’s Inspector General and Gene Aloise of the Government Accountability Office.

On June 18, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board sent a letter to the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, concerning the Plutonium Facility.

The letter laid out DNFSB concerns with identified deficiencies in Revision 1 of the 2011 Documented Safety Analysis for the Plutonium Facility. The Board requested a report and briefing within 30 days addressing the deficiencies.

According to an email acquired by the Los Alamos Monitor, there could be even more cutbacks at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Serving Our Country (SOC), which provides security to LANL, will possibly eliminate 31 positions in a restructuring that is still under negotiations. The email indicated that SOC was pursuing voluntary separation packages for the lost positions.

Lab spokesman Fred DeSousa said the proposed cuts are not part of the 80 contractor positions cut by LANL last month.
He referred inquiries to SOC spokesperson Liddie Martinez, who was traveling to Washington D.C. and unavailable for comment.

Two Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists are among the team recently funded to explore ways to create the precise immune factors needed for effective vaccines against HIV.
The Duke University-led consortium will largely concentrate on inducing broadly neutralizing antibodies that can prevent HIV-1 infection, as well as on generating protective T-cell and innate immune system responses.
“A vaccine-elicited broadly neutralizing antibody response has the potential to block HIV infection; T-cell responses will support that response, and are likely to be able to help control and contain the virus if it breaks through the neutralizing antibody response,” said Bette Korber, one of the LANL researchers.

Rev. Holly Beaumont of Santa Fe stood up near the end of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities meeting Friday in Española and asked a question that seemed to be making the rounds in Northern New Mexico.

Apparently, a rumor had been circulating that the coalition has been lobbying lawmakers to restore funding for the Chemistry Metallurgy Research Replacement facility.

The Obama administration and the National Nuclear Security Administration had made the decision to defer the CMRR project for five years. But there are other house and senate committees that are trying to bring the project back to life.

Erin English (right) and two others check out posters at the LANL stormwater permit meeting Thursday night in Pojoaque. English, who works for Biohabitats in Santa Fe, was one of five speakers at the event. She talked about green infrastructure and low impact development. For more on the meeting, check out next week’s Los Alamos Monitor.